


love talkin' (honey, it's you)

by woojin



Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: 365 Fresh AU, M/M, very very small amount of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-15 01:48:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11795916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woojin/pseuds/woojin
Summary: seongwoo, daniel, and minhyun seek a small town by the sea on a highway to healing.





	love talkin' (honey, it's you)

**Author's Note:**

> fyi, just disclaimers
> 
> seongwoo's suicidal, daniel's a sex worker, and minhyun's a drug dealer. with these, may come the obvious triggering themes. the violence isn't overly explicit (i can't write it) and it's very brief. 
> 
> this is loosely based off of 365 fresh by triple h, and i couldn't resist writing for ongnielhwang. thank you for reading

Minhyun was running, running, no time left. He wasn’t sure if this was something he could outrun. Nonetheless, he persisted and his feet edged on, hitting the dust that the alleyway sat on. 

 

“Hey, Hwang Minhyun, where the fuck is my money?”

 

Minhyun ignored them as his legs sprinted, glided across the ground. He was about to turn left until he was cornered by two other men, guns in both of their hands. He kept walking back as they walked forward, his back eventually hitting the brick wall.

 

“I asked you a question.” said the man that shouted at Minhyun earlier. “I didn’t get an answer.”

 

“I don’t have it, obviously.” Minhyun retorted, his heart almost bursting out of his chest. “Why the fuck else would I be running from you?”

 

A fist pulverized through Minhyun’s skin, from one of the boss’s henchmen. He thought he deserved that one. Who was he, talking shit about the man who could end his life right then and there?

 

“I should kill you now.” he responded. “Not like anyone would miss you.”

 

“You won’t.” Minhyun spat. Another blow to Minhyun’s face, almost expected, almost too perfect, almost too automatic. “I’ve done work for you too long. I’m one of your best.”

 

“You’re good at selling drugs, I’ll give you that.” the head had looked left and right. “That was all you were good at, fucking up other people’s lives —”

 

“You’re acting as if you aren’t fucking up people’s lives, either. You fucked up mine.” 

 

He laughed, almost shrieked in his face. He walked around, in a circle, observing the firm grasp one of the bodyguards had on Minhyun’s neck. He came closer to Minhyun, his deep wrinkles, his wide-set eyes, as if he was telling him that he would be the last thing he’d see before he died. 

 

“You know, you’re right. Let him go.” the boss’s request was quiet, compared to the way his voice echoed off the walls. 

 

“I have ruined your life enough. I am also tired of you slipping away from my hands. Just know that now, you have nothing. I will not help you in any way, shape, or form. Is that it?”

 

“That’s all I’ve ever wanted,” Minhyun croaked. He would have passed out in the alley, but he had places to be. He picked himself up, and walked (albeit with a lot of trouble) to the convenience store. 

The streets acted as if he was invisible. 

 

The clerk stared at him while he looked at his bloody face in the reflection of the glass protection of the cashier’s desk. When he was about to ask a question, Minhyun took his bag, said thank you, and left.

 

—

 

Daniel groaned and stomped hard on the ground, like a child throwing a small tantrum as he knocked on the hotel room door. It was a fancy one, the lighting was golden and illuminated the hallway, and the carpet was soft. 

 

“You must be Daniel,” said the man that opened the door. He had a name, Daniel just didn’t remember, and quite honestly, he didn’t care what his name is. All he knew was that he liked having sex with dudes, he was rich, and no one needed to know about it.

 

“I’m a bit nervous.” he smiled. Daniel smiled back, but internally he thought,  _ Fucking hell. This guy is older than I remembered.  _

 

“How old did you say you were again?”

 

“59. Am I not old enough for you?”

 

_ Actually, you’re way too old. In fact, you look older than 59. You could be a good 129 years old.  _

 

“No, you look great for your age, actually.”

 

Daniel could keep it cool. He was sweet, sensitive, and down for whatever a client wanted. 

 

He wasn’t passionate. In fact, his movements were robotic, calculated carefully to whatever he felt like a client would want. He only wanted the money. Daniel didn’t care about intimacy. This wasn’t about intimacy, anyway. Nothing was out of character, and nothing was spontaneous. 

 

When Daniel was done, they usually commented on whatever they could have said earlier. “My god, your shoulders are so broad,” That’s when he usually remembered he wasn’t dealing with regular people. He felt like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood at those times.

 

He watched the man doze off to sleep. He enjoyed himself, really, and Daniel was paid generously. He mentioned that he never slept well. However, minutes had passed and he fell into slumber like there wasn’t a care in the world.

 

Another knock on the door came in the deep hours of the night. In this time, Daniel had ordered three more meals, watched the news, and looked at the pay-per-view channels. He was requested to stay the night. The deal didn’t mention sleeping with him in the bed. It’s not like Daniel himself could sleep easy after a job.

 

“Who is it?” asked the old man, in the middle of sleeping, tossing and turning around the bed.

 

“It’s me,” a female voice said. A cheery one, if anything. She sounded young. “I just came to visit! I got lonely, and you’re the only person I talk to. Open the door, please.”

The man’s eyes almost popped out of his sockets. He whispered hastily to Daniel, “Hide in the closet. Don’t come out until I say you can.”

 

And so, Daniel hid in the closet. It was horrifyingly ironic, the spot he was in, but the closet was spacious, and he couldn’t complain. 

 

Daniel’s eye peeked out from the crack of the door, a young, blonde woman kissing the man that was kissing him earlier. When the woman’s back faced him to hug the man, his eyes were fixated on Daniel. He knew he was looking at him.

 

He made sure not to breathe too loud, not make anything obvious about someone else’s presence here. He listened to their casual conversations, about, in Daniel’s opinion, the woman’s ostracization from the rest of her family at the sake of marrying the man. She constantly talked about being lonely, having no one with her, and sitting in their apparently massive home alone.

 

“When will you come home? Oh, speaking of which, since your trip will last longer than expected, I brought some extra necessities for you. Let me put them in your closet.” The woman had a very pretty smile, noted Daniel. It was a shame that her husband was probably gay and cheating on her. Or maybe she married him for the money. Daniel liked to believe in love though.

 

“No! I’m okay. I have enough, believe me.” the man was pleading. Daniel thought that maybe he should have been thinking about his wife when he had called him to come over. 

 

“Oh, it’s really no big deal, come on,” the woman inched closer to Daniel in the closet. There was silence, almost like time had frozen in Daniel’s favor. For a moment, he felt like he was safe. 

 

That was until the woman finally opened the closet, and the shout that came from her lips felt like glass had fallen from the ceiling.

 

The man shrieked again, his voice becoming frantic, “You fucking freak! What the hell are you doing? Did you know my wife would be here?”

 

He crouched down and pulled a gun from underneath his bed. Daniel was more surprised at the fact that he had it rather than it being pointed at him.

 

His footsteps were gentle but shaky, Daniel could tell he had never done this before, but the man kept up a good act to his wife. 

 

“Are you some sort of pervert? Were you touching yourself to my wife, is that why you’re almost naked?”

 

Daniel was almost about to fall on the bathroom floor as the man focused his gun straight at him. He noticed the butter knife sitting on the platter that was delivered to them earlier and grabs it as the man nods to his wife.

 

He thinks he has nothing to lose, and stabs him in the chest. Blood blooms from the middle of the man’s shirt, in surprise. When the man’s eyes roll to the back of his head and collapses to the ground, he smiled, like he was wishing Daniel a goodbye. His eyes implied that they’d meet again, sometime and somewhere.

 

The wife stood there, apathetic. There was nothing in her eyes that showed shock and fear.

 

“Your husband was a cheater.” Daniel said, about to jump out the window, from the second floor of the building, hopping to the fire escape.

 

“I knew that. You killed him. Thank you for getting rid of — a problem.”

 

Daniel’s heart aches, and the pain for her washes away the regret he felt. “You’re welcome. I’m sorry that you had this problem.”

 

—

  
  


Seongwoo was soaking in the bathtub for around four hours. Before those four hours, he’s attempted to jump off the building complex, drawn on the mirror with his ex-girlfriend’s lipstick, suffocate himself to death with a paper bag before eventually giving up.

 

He was too lazy to try drowning himself in the bath, so he sat there, nude. The sun that peeked in his face eventually disappeared as the stars came into view. 

 

His plan was to get over his girlfriend, get over everything really, but it failed and he went straight to partying and passing out in places that he had never been before. 

 

All Seongwoo wanted to do was numb the pain, but he figured he had done everything. He just wasn’t meant to get rid of it. All he could do was endure it.

 

_ Maybe a car will finally run me to the ground and then this can all be over. _

 

When he steps outside the building, he feels his senses tense up. Almost like he deserved to stay back in isolation. He was determined to carry this on, though. He needed to finish the job. 

 

The cars speed past him with no consideration of his existence. He thought it was quite rude that no one was potentially trying to kill him, but he walked on the road, hoping the final blow came before he was on the other side of the sidewalk.

 

He almost gets his wish. 

 

—

 

Minhyun fumbles while opening the door to the small apartment complex. When he stepped in, he was greeted by it being absolutely destroyed.

 

He wasn’t surprised, and at this point in his life, nothing could really disturb him. He had seen too many tragedies and heard of too many disasters to be upset by something that could upset the average man.

 

Of course the boss couldn’t let Minhyun live peacefully. He had to annihilate all his possessions first. However, Minhyun wasn’t naive, and sometimes when he considered leaving the business, he would imagine an escape route to make sure no one was able to torture him once more.

 

Minhyun took whatever he could salvage (mostly clothes and toiletries) and shoved it in a plastic bag. Lastly, he took the small picture of him and Jonghyun so long ago, and slipped it in his back pocket. He was fortunate that no one found the emergency money he kept underneath the floorboards, because it would be enough to sustain him until hemade it to his destination. 

 

Minhyun began his action plan right away. He knew where he could find money, someone who could help him, but he’d have to drive to the other side of the country to do so. Finding a car would be no problem. All he had to do was find someone careless enough to leave them around, preferably in a club, because it was easier to steal from a drunk person than someone sober.

 

When he arrived at the club, only a few minutes of a walk away from his home, he sat down at the table, next to a couple of women who were clearly drunk. The club was abnormally dark, almost no lighting inside, thus making it hard for him to be noticed by the giggly and distracted women. For a moment, Minhyun felt bad stealing from them, but then he thought that they should be more careful with their keys.

 

The car had made a small clicking noise that Minhyun had barely heard when he pressed the button on the keys. He smiled to himself. The car was sleek, a black color that looked freshly painted and the interior smoothly built.

 

He got in the car, and turned on a radio station that was playing 80’s hits. The stereo’s vibration was able to be felt by anyone in the car, and Minhyun enjoyed the sound of every beat seeping into his skin as he drove off into the city night.

 

Minhyun would go all the way down to a small town near the sea, far away from Seoul that was concentrated in the north. He would live with Jonghyun, who, ideally, would welcome him with open arms, like Minhyun was the only human being he had ever been in contact with. Minhyun was aware this was the only way to be happy. To be with those he loved, that wasn’t a luxury in Seoul.

 

The road had grown empty, but there were still some pedestrians walking on the road. Minhyun soon realized that his depth perception was fucked, and that he was way closer to hitting someone than he thought. He slammed on the brakes, his mind elsewhere while listening to the radio.

 

A man, a tall one, with his hands covered in blood, stood directly outside the hood from Minhyun’s car. Minhyun stopped the car, and got out. 

 

“Hey, listen, can I get a ride from you, please?” 

 

“Seems like you —” Minhyun looked at the man’s bloody clothes and hands, and finally at his face, confused and even scared, but only if one looked close. “—got yourself in some trouble.”

 

“Look, man, the fact that you haven’t called the cops on me yet should say something. Are you running away?”

 

“More or less.”

 

“Let me come with you. I’m not gonna kill you. Well, I’ve killed someone, but it was justified, but I’m not a —”

 

“Just get in the fucking car.”

 

The man (or boy, because now that Minhyun looked at him, he was incredibly boyish, that contradicted his appearance) sat in the front seat next to Minhyun, and looked at him as he started the car. They drove off, as if there was no interruption.

 

“So, what’s your name?” Minhyun asked, noticing the boy’s head hanging down.

 

“Oh,” he said, his head spinning to see if the question was for anyone else. “Daniel.”

 

“Just Daniel?”

 

“Kang Daniel, if you really want to know.”

 

“Okay. So, Kang Daniel, you already admitted to me that you killed someone, how did you do that?”

 

“What’s your name? I’ll answer if you tell me that and why you’re on the run.”

 

Minhyun was about to respond that he was trying his patience, but if they were enduring this road trip together, he figured that they’d need to know something about each other.

 

“I’m Hwang Minhyun. I used to sell drugs. Now I’m not, but I think my boss is trying to kill me. So, I’m gonna go to this town by the sea to stay away from him.”

 

“Okay. Well, I’m Kang Daniel, but you know that. I, uh, am a sex worker. I killed one of my clients because he was trying to kill me.”

 

“Sex worker? How old are you?” Minhyun guessed he was one when he saw him. The fact that he was in barely any clothing when he got in Minhyun’s car gave it away, just a bit. 

 

“I’m 20.”

 

“Wow.” He was young. Minhyun was young, but he felt eons older than Daniel, for whatever reason. “I can respect that. It must be hard dealing with creeps like that in the business.”

 

“How old are you, Hwang Minhyun?” Daniel smirked a bit. Minhyun sensed him becoming a bit more confident, now that the chances of him being arrested by him were slimmer.

 

“I’m 21.”

 

“The sea sounds nice. I’ve always wanted to see it.”

 

“I have too.” He wanted to see Jonghyun more.

 

Suddenly, Minhyun slammed on the break, only this time, he actually hit someone. He briefly saw the figure of a human being walking slowly, like time wasn’t passing before he had noticed his mistake. He got out of the car again, swearing to himself while Daniel stayed in the car, motionless.

 

The man that laid before him was bleeding, but he got up, touched his head, and fell back again. “Ugh, shit. Would you, like, do that again? I really need to die right now.”

 

“No, wait, what?” He shouted for Daniel, who got out of the car in only underwear like it was normal.

 

“Get him in the car. And get the rag in the back pocket and clean his head, I can’t deal with this right now.”

 

With Minhyun starting the car, after Daniel had gotten the man in, he was cleaning the scabs with a bottle of water and a small towel. As he tilted his head to get in the right areas, the man lazily smiled. “You’re beautiful.”

 

“Are you on any sort of drug right now?”    
  


“Yeah,” the man snorted to himself. Daniel rolled his eyes. He was probably used to being called beautiful by strangers.

 

Now, Minhyun had to interrogate this guy, the one who could barely formulate responses and the only times he felt the need to say anything were either incoherent and didn’t make sense, or talking about Daniel.

 

“What’s your name?” Minhyun took them on a highway, at 2:12 a.m.

 

“Ong Seongwoo.”

 

“Hong Seongwoo?” Daniel misheard, and the man sat up by himself.

 

“No, it’s Ong Seongwoo.” This time, he replied with no delay. 

 

“So, you wanted me to kill you?” Minhyun questioned further.

 

“Well, yeah, I did. I still kind of want to die right now, but less.” Seongwoo looked at his fingers. They were calloused and dry.

 

“I’ll just be upfront. Where the hell am I supposed to take you?”

 

“Wherever you’re going, I guess. I have no purpose, anyway. Maybe I can find one on the way there.”

 

“Okay. So, we’re all going where I want to go.”

 

“Wait, hold on. What about you two pretty boys?” Seongwoo laughed. “How come I get all the questions. I want to hear about you all. Why are we running?”

 

While Minhyun changed lanes, Daniel spoke. “I’m Daniel, I’m a sex worker, I killed a client. This is Minhyun, he was a drug dealer and he’s running away from his murder-hungry boss. You got it?”   
  


“That’s why you’re only wearing underwear?”

 

“Did you expect me to gather my things before I escaped a murder scene? I literally jumped out of the window and ran.” Daniel deadpanned. 

 

“Damn. I wouldn’t have expected this from either of you.” Seongwoo commented, laying on Daniel’s shoulders when Daniel didn’t allow him to.

 

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” Minhyun said, his voice devoid of emotion.

 

—

 

Minhyun was never one to sleep much, and they continued to drive as the sun rose. He also refused Daniel and Seongwoo’s offers to drive, insisting that they try to sleep. 

 

They pull off to an exit to a seemingly abandoned gas station. Minhyun had the intention of sleeping for a few hours while Seongwoo and Daniel just did...whatever. 

 

Seongwoo, they had learned, was a particularly fidgety person at times, always touching something or always preoccupied with something. He was uncomfortable with silence, and would always have words to say. 

 

Because of this neverending need to keep himself busy, Seongwoo cracks open the trunk of the stolen car and, to his surprise, saw stacks of bills sitting neatly in a massive garbage bag. When he counts it all, each individual currency of won, he wakes up Minhyun and Daniel (who slept the whole time while Minhyun was driving, as well as while he was sleeping).

 

Being the doubtful person he was, Minhyun looked at the trunk himself, and yes, this wasn’t something that Seongwoo manifested from his mind. The money was real. More importantly, it was plentiful.

 

“Well, are we allowed to have fun on this road trip?” Seongwoo puts his hands on his hips. “Surely, all this money can’t just sit here.”

 

Seongwoo had a point. First of all, it was abnormal to have this much money in cash. If someone tried to do anything legitimate, it’d be suspicious. Particularly for the three of them, soon the crimes they committed would be linked together to the thievery of the car by Minhyun.

 

“Let’s just try and blow it,” suggests Daniel. “Until we have a reasonable amount of money.”

 

Minhyun takes off the sunglasses he put on while exiting the car. He had nothing to lose, except what if he needed it later? What if there was an emergency? 

 

“Let’s hold off on it.” he decides. “We can spend some of it. Not all of it though.”

 

“Wow, look at you Hwang Minhyun,” a grin peeks from Seongwoo’s mouth. “Emperor Hwang Minhyun has made his choice. All of you must follow.” He imitates the voices often heard from the speakers that deliver gravely serious announcements in historical dramas. 

 

“I’ve never made a good decision in my life, trust me.” 

 

“You did when you took the both of us in your car. And when you wanted to leave the business. So far, your plan is going well. I’d say you’ve made some pretty good ones.” Daniel says while he leaned on the car.

 

“Thanks.” It was all he could say. He hadn’t received a genuine compliment in a while. Inside, he processes it to memory. He hopes then, that he doesn’t forget Daniel for saying it. 

 

—

 

Minhyun begins to enjoy Daniel’s company at 11:09 a.m. on the first morning. He begins to enjoy Seongwoo’s exactly an hour later.

 

He’s able to talk so nonchalantly about trauma, almost like it’s a joke to him. Minhyun appreciates that, because he was unable to discuss it. He never disclosed any information about himself, whereas Seongwoo was an open book. He admired that about him, the ability to answer any question about himself honestly and truthfully. Was it the drugs? No, they had worn off by that time. Now, Minhyun was getting to know the real him.

 

His parents were addicts, and as Seongwoo tells in detail how the story unravels, Minhyun’s guilt takes the best of him, and he has to pull over, and he feels like he’ll crash the car. His heart pangs in his chest a bit too much, and he swears his mind is disconnecting from the rest of his body, almost like the day before in the alley. He feels responsible.

 

Seongwoo picks up on it quickly. “It’s fine.” He gets out of the car, and pushes Minhyun in the back seat with the two of them. Seongwoo puts his arms around Minhyun, secure on one side, and almost telepathically, Daniel does on the opposite. They both hold him, hands intertwined, bodies close, the silence comfortable.

 

Minhyun cries, but so quietly that no one would notice. Seongwoo only observes it, because he can feel some sort of aura in Minhyun that’s unsettling. Daniel pays attention because the tone of Minhyun’s voice is different. 

 

He thinks they’re connected. Some universal spirit wanted them to be together on this journey. Or else, Minhyun definitely would have jumped off the bridge that they drove across in the moonlight hours before. The isolation was getting to him. Sure, now he was bad at making friends. But at least he was trying.

 

Today, Minhyun finally agrees to let Seongwoo drive. “You know, I can drive, I just was never able to get my license.”

 

“That’s what they all say,” Daniel laughs. 

 

Seongwoo sang very loud in the car, and so did Daniel. It felt good, to have someone fill up the empty space. They were occupying each other’s time.

 

“Can we do something fun tonight?” It comes from Daniel, and his legs are across the back seat.

 

“Like what?” snorts Seongwoo. When there’s silence on Daniel’s side, and after Minhyun’s explanation that he came up with the idea when he was stoned, drunk, whatever the hell he was on, he says, “Oh, yeah. Let’s go clubbing.”

 

“I hate clubbing,” pouts Minhyun.

 

“You won’t when you’re with us,” Seongwoo’s wink and smile is intoxicating. Minhyun agrees, but only to wipe it off his face.

 

“I don’t think I want you to get any more fucked up than you already were before,” Daniel responds. “I like this side of you.”

 

“Do you really?” Seongwoo asks.

 

“I do. I’m sure Minhyun does too.”

 

Minhyun says nothing, because Daniel’s right, and the way he’s looking at him ignites something he’d rather deal with later. 

 

—

 

“I can handle myself,” Seongwoo urges Minhyun on to buy a drink for himself and Daniel, in a poorly lit convienience store. “I won’t drink. You go ahead.”

 

“Seongwoo, you’re a recovering drug addict, hell no,” Minhyun retorts.

 

“Minhyun, you’re a recovering drug dealer.”

 

“You’re not wrong, but no. I can’t do that. It’s not fair.”

 

If Minhyun had the coldness in his heart, he would have been one of those “life isn’t fair” people, who used the phrase to justify every wrongdoing or misfortune done in the world. He wasn’t like that though, and somehow felt like he owed it to Seongwoo, to not get fucked up right in front of him.

 

“Life wasn’t fair to me. I want it to be for you. Come on, relax.” Seongwoo’s hands grip Minhyun’s broad shoulders.

 

“Let’s do it some other way then. Life wasn’t fair to me either. Let me make it fair for you.” When the words leave Minhyun’s mouth, he couldn’t comprehend them being from him. 

 

Seongwoo takes the bottle out of his hand and then put it back in the cold compartment. “Okay. Just get something non-alcoholic. But I know how we can have fun.”

 

When they come outside, Daniel is using the payphone, leaning on it with his back facing them. He’s looking down on the ground, as he waits for a response.

 

“Jisung hyung? It’s me,”

 

“Daniel? I’m gonna fucking kill you. Where the hell are you?” The voice on the other line, Jisung says. He seems pissed, and judging by the fact that his tone sounds concerned and worried, Minhyun couldn’t blame him.

 

“I got myself into some trouble. I just needed you knowing I’m okay. I’m far away from the city. I need to stay out of it for a while. I’ll call you when I’m ready to come home.”

 

“What did you do,”  It wasn’t a question, there wasn’t much of interest, more of disappointment.

 

“I killed a client. I’m sorry.”

 

He sighs over the line and there aren’t any words being said for a few moments. “You were in danger. The Kang Daniel I know wouldn’t hurt a fly. I understand.”

 

“You do?” asks Daniel and the look on his face pleads for Jisung to say yes. It’s another thing that reminds Minhyun that all three of them aren’t so grown up. Maybe they had to do it so fast that they forgot some steps along the way.

 

“Of course I do. Let me know when you’re ready. I’ll come. I don’t know what you’re up to, but I hope you’re safe.”

 

“I’m safe right now, don’t worry. I’ll be by the sea. Maybe we’ll see it together.”

 

“We will.”

 

“I have to go,” Daniel looks at the other two, and he smiles. “I’ll see you soon.”

 

—

 

They book a hotel room in the small, almost deserted town. Minhyun was tired of Daniel’s long legs kicking his seat while he slept, and thought that all three of them could use a proper bed.

 

Despite the fact that they could afford three separate rooms, Seongwoo whines so that Daniel and Minhyun comply into the staying in the same room. Daniel rolls his eyes, but Minhyun doesn’t care either way.

 

“Guys, let’s play truth or dare.” Seongwoo beams, hugging a pillow, in a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants that belonged to Minhyun, from his apartment.

 

“How old are we again?” Daniel, like Seongwoo, was wearing Minhyun’s sweatshirt, the biggest one he owned. 

 

“Who cares!” he nearly screams, unaware of an inside voice. “Minhyun, truth or dare.”

 

“I don’t know,” Minhyun is changing his own clothes, and, trying to come up with an answer before Seongwoo picks for him, he says, “Truth.”

 

“Okay,” he’s giggling like he’s 5 years old, and blood rushes to Minhyun’s face. “Do you find me and Daniel attractive?”

 

Minhyun should have just left the room, but he answers honestly, because he doesn’t know what else to do. “Yeah, I do.”

 

“At least you were honest,” Daniel comments. “My glares weren’t for nothing,”

 

Minhyun laughs, and he’s unsure what to do with the information. 

 

“Can I blow you, Minhyun?” Seongwoo comes up to him, his cheek touching Minhyun, his eyes closed. 

 

“Was this a set-up?”

 

“Maybe, maybe not.” 

 

“Did you snort something behind my back?” Minhyun’s lazy grin, turning around, had him nose to nose with Seongwoo.

 

“No, I’m sober. I just like you a lot.”

 

“Okay, if you guys are gonna fuck, I’m leaving.” Daniel gets off the bed and with a wave, shuts the door.

 

They don’t, and Minhyun thinks that he should call Daniel back, since he’s probably dozing off in the hallway, and he feels bad for indirectly kicking him out.

 

“Daniel sleeps a lot, doesn’t he,” Minhyun states, mostly talking to himself.

 

“Oh yeah. He has narcolepsy, so, I expected it in a way.” Seongwoo responds, his head in Minhyun’s lap. Minhyun brushes his hair in his face. It’s unexpectedly soft.

 

“He does? I never noticed.”

 

“He told me while you were sleeping, before I found the money in the trunk. Sometimes his eyes get droopy, other times he flat out knocks out. Maybe it has to do with his job.”

 

Minhyun didn’t think of that. Daniel’s shift was always in the night. Always a secret, Daniel had reasons to keep things to himself. He thinks he sleeps in the day because that’s when he has nothing to worry about.

 

“Can we tell Daniel to come back?” It’s almost like Seongwoo is reading Minhyun’s mind.

 

“I’ll go get him, yeah. We should sleep, and get going in the morning.”

 

Minhyun takes the elevator down and sees that Daniel had passed out in a small chair in the corner of the lobby. When he shakes him, Daniel’s eyes barely open. He smiles though, and that’s what gives Minhyun the opportunity to think that everything might be okay.

 

—

 

Minhyun has dreams, and he thinks about them as the car keeps pushing along the road. He prefers for them to be with Jonghyun, in the house by the sea. The house that he had no clue what it looked like, but if it was Jonghyun’s, it had to be beautiful.

 

He liked writing and reading. Now that he was thinking, selling drugs and writing, while two very different “hobbies”, were the only consistent thing Minhyun had kept in his life. One of those hobbies had been ridden of, thankfully. 

 

If Minhyun could, he’d go to school, and attempt to write a book. Maybe his magnus opus will come when he’s on the shore.

 

Daniel talks about his too. “If I wasn’t a sex worker, I’d like to be a dancer.”

 

“An exotic one?” Seongwoo laughs, but no one else thinks it’s funny.

 

“Fuck off, just a regular one. Like ballet, or hip-hop. Jazz and modern and traditional. All of that.”

 

“How did you become a sex worker?” asks Minhyun. 

 

“My family didn’t have money. I started it to pay bills.”

 

“How long ago did you start?” The lack of the usual gleam in Seongwoo’s eyes shows his sincerity.

 

“I was 16. I was a stripper, which eventually led to general sex work, going to people’s houses, ruining their lives because they weren’t really ready to accept that they weren’t happy.”

 

“Were your clients usually men or women?” Minhyun was curious. He did see people in the business hire sex workers from time to time, the fire evident in others’ bodies when having sex gone, almost like it was a tedious task. It was a tedious task, and occasionally Minhyun would offer to escort them the way home. They almost always declined, but Minhyun understood. A job like that requires distrust.

 

“Men. Almost always men. I’ve had female clients before, but they don’t ask much of me. I think that’s why I enjoy working with them.”

 

Daniel’s voice is apathetic. “The money I had, I would split it between me and my friend — Jisung, he lived with me — and the rest would go to the pimp, for lack of a better word. I wanted to save enough money to go to dance school, but things got hard, and we could only afford necessities.”   
  


“I’m sorry.” Minhyun says, and he feels awkward. 

 

“You shouldn’t be. I made the decision.”

 

“So, we all have terrible pasts? Can we call ourselves the Tormented Souls Club?” Seongwoo is a master of using humor.

 

“That sounds more like a biker gang,” Daniel’s front teeth sticking out.

 

“We should reunite when we’re 60, and become a biker gang.” Seongwoo suggests. “I know I’d be a cool biker.”

 

—

 

They’re at the town by sunset. Minhyun wasn’t usually a nervous person, but the closer he got, he couldn’t help but feel like someone had ripped his heart from his chest.

 

He should have told Jonghyun he was coming. It was possible that he was still living with Minki, Aron and Dongho, but Minhyun felt foolish. Maybe he moved on. Promises could be broken, and Minhyun couldn’t blame him if Jonghyun broke his.

 

Minhyun was convinced Jonghyun didn’t have a bad bone in his body. He was his parents’ pride, their treasure, and even when he had come short, he always made the effort to do better. Everyone that met him left him with a grin on their face. He had this mesmerizing impact of being remembered by people. Minhyun was sure he was the only love he knew.

 

The quiet seashore city has the sun peeking out of the clouds, and Minhyun’s hands tremble as the pink sky around him slowly but surely turns into black. Hes holding the address that’s written on the back of a napkin, and when he approaches the small but bright home at the end of the road, he takes a deep breath and knocks.

 

“Coming!” says Jonghyun’s voice. At least Minhyun didn’t go to the wrong house. Or the wrong city.

 

Jonghyun opens the door, and Minhyun just smiles. It’s something he hadn’t done a lot of, and he feels like he has to, for him.

 

“Minhyun? Holy shit,” Jonghyun, the angel that he is, just pulls him into a hug. “You told me not to contact you.”

 

“I was worried, I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry.”

 

“You kept your promise.”

 

“I said I’d come when it was safe.”

Seongwoo and Daniel stand behind him, unable to speak. Minhyun looks back, and swears a tear fell from Seongwoo’s eye.

 

When Jonghyun lets the three of them inside, Minhyun tries to explains everything, but Jonghyun insists that for once in his life, he needs a break from having to explain himself.

 

“You all kind of need a break.” he says, retreating to the kitchen.

 

—

 

Minhyun does see the sea with Jonghyun. It’s as clear and as blue as he had hoped. He writes while the sound of the waves creating chaos echoes.

 

Minki critiques Minhyun’s writing like it’s his job, and Dongho and Aron tell him to give it a rest. Minki gives it a 3 out of 5 stars.

 

—

 

After a few weeks, Minhyun gives all the money in the car back to Seongwoo and Daniel. He knows what happens when you’re in a constant quest of money, and he doesn’t need it.

 

“Promise me you’ll go to dance school.” Minhyun holds Daniel’s hand, more like a father and a child parting ways.

 

“I will. It’s been my goal for a while.”

 

Jisung and Minhyun get along well for the fifteen minutes they meet each other, and Minhyun asks the two of them to keep in touch with him as they enter the car. They both agree Daniel is the younger brother they wish they had.

 

Seongwoo has no one, but Minhyun says it’s okay for him to stay. 

 

“I have to find my purpose. It’s fine. You’ve done enough. Thank you.”

 

Minhyun’s eyes twinkle like the stars above him as he says, “You’re welcome.”

**Author's Note:**

> AGAIN THANKS FOR READING!!!!! leave comments please, they make me happy and i want to write more when i read them.


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